Divorce and custody counsel for Cherry Creek and Wash Park.
The divorces that come out of Cherry Creek, Hilltop, Country Club and Washington Park are Denver’s most financially complicated: executive compensation that vests over years, a law or medical practice, a house on a block where every sale is a record, a second property in the mountains. They are heard downtown, in Denver District Court, and I try them there.
- 01What a Cherry Creek divorce is usually about
- 02Denver District Court, downtown
- 03Custody when both parents intend to stay in…
- →Denver metro family courts
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Talk to us about your case.
303-507-5529One call. A real person picks up, hears you out, and tells you how we would handle what you are facing and what to do first. No phone tree, no sales pitch, no obligation. Your first conversation is with our intake paralegal, who will get you to Aaron fast.
Rather write? Send a short note and during business hours we call you back within the hour.
What a Cherry Creek divorce is usually about.
Stock options and restricted stock units granted before the marriage and vesting after it, a partnership interest in a firm, a medical or dental practice with a buy-sell agreement, a house that has been in one family for a generation and a townhouse bought at the top of the market: the Cherry Creek file is a tracing and valuation problem before it is a division problem. Colorado divides marital property equitably, treats the marital portion of unvested compensation as marital, and keeps separate property separate — but the increase in its value during the marriage is marital. Which is why the first month of a case like this is spent on records, not rhetoric.
The other constant is that neither spouse wants the file to be interesting, and in the Second Judicial District the file is a public record in the largest courthouse in the state. The way to keep a valuation, a compensation package, or a family trust out of view is to plan for it from the beginning — private mediation, protective orders where they are justified, and settlement documents that recite no more than they must. I have written about the tools on Privacy & Discretion and about the money on Executive Compensation.
Denver District Court, downtown.
Cherry Creek, Hilltop, Country Club, Observatory Park and Washington Park are all in the City and County of Denver, so a case filed here goes to the 2nd Judicial District at the Denver City & County Building on Bannock Street — about fifteen minutes from Cherry Creek and twenty-five from my office in Greenwood Village. Domestic relations is heard in Room 256; criminal matters are across the street at Lindsey-Flanigan. Denver runs the busiest family docket in the state, 3,916 domestic cases filed in 2024, with five district judges who rotate through domestic for eighteen to twenty-four months at a time and three magistrates who stay. The court has its own simplified forms, the DEN series, and the initial status conference is set with a facilitator or a judge, in person or by phone. Nothing is accepted by fax or email. In my experience the volume means a contested permanent-orders hearing is set well out, which is one more reason to settle what can be settled early; and there is no family waiting area, so do not bring the children. The detail, and every other metro courthouse, is on the Denver Metro Family Courts page.
1437 Bannock Street, Denver, CO 80202 · Clerk’s Office, Room 256
(303) 606-2300
Monday–Friday, 8:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.
The bench. Five district judges rotate through the domestic docket for eighteen to twenty-four months at a time; three magistrates stay with it. Domestic relations is in Room 256 of the City & County Building; 3,916 domestic cases were filed in 2024, the most in Colorado.
Parking. No courthouse lot. Meters and paid garages ring Civic Center; the nearest public garage is the Denver Justice Center garage at 490 West 14th Avenue. Budget twenty minutes to park and clear security.
Help at the courthouse. Self-help center in Room 281, closed 11:30 to 12:30. The court has no family waiting area, so do not bring the children.
Directions in Google Maps · Official court page (Colorado Judicial Branch)
County: City and County of Denver
Court: Denver City & County Building, downtown (2nd Judicial District)
Schools: Denver Public Schools
To the courthouse: About 15 minutes; no courthouse lot, allow time to park
To my office: About 20 minutes to Greenwood Village; video available
Custody when both parents intend to stay in the city.
Most Cherry Creek and Wash Park custody cases — and the same is true a few miles northeast in Central Park and Lowry, which I also serve from this court — are about a schedule that keeps the children in the same school, the same activities, and the same friendships while two households take shape a few blocks apart. Colorado’s best-interests factors include the physical proximity of the parents’ homes and each parent’s past pattern of involvement, and I build parenting plans around both — and around the travel schedule of a parent whose work does not stop at five. When a parent’s calendar makes a conventional week-on, week-off plan unrealistic, the answer is a plan drafted for that family. More on Custody for Executives & Business Owners.
Recent writing.
In a hard-fought Colorado custody case the judge can appoint an attorney whose only client is the child's best interests. What a CLR does, how it differs from a…
Sept 18, 2026The SLAT Trap: When the Estate Plan Meets the DivorceSpousal Lifetime Access Trusts move wealth out of the taxable estate, with the marriage as the access mechanism. In a divorce, the donor loses the access,…
Sept 17, 2026Can You File for Divorce in Another State If You Live in Colorado?Where a divorce can be filed, where the money can be decided, and where the children's case belongs are three different questions. Colorado's 91-day domicile…
If you are in Cherry Creek, start with a confidential conversation.
A consultation is a working session, in person in Greenwood Village or by video: we go through your situation and I tell you what I would do. Your note reaches my office directly; during business hours we call you back within the hour, run the conflicts check, and set the meeting.
Talk to us about your case.
303-507-5529One call. A real person picks up, hears you out, and tells you how we would handle what you are facing and what to do first. No phone tree, no sales pitch, no obligation. Your first conversation is with our intake paralegal, who will get you to Aaron fast.
Rather write? Send a short note and during business hours we call you back within the hour.